Reptile & Amphibian Forums

do you use them for the babies and adults?

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The following sentence is true.
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4.4 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Marbled Gecko
1.1 Red Eared Sliders
0.2 Siamese Mice

I use mealworms for adults and babies. I keep 1/8" of t-rex sandfire superfoods guload formula on the bottom of each food dish. This is all the food and supplements that my leos get.
good luck
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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

I switched over completely to mealworms about 1 yr ago, and I don't regret it one bit. I used to do a custom gutload mix for the mealies - now it is more basic (yams, greens) - because I used Sandfire T-Rex Leopard Gecko ICB dust for the mealies. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

For me - switching to mealies was a personal choice, because I was sick of the constant care involved in crickets. Mealies can be kept in a smaller place - don't get out and walk on my face in the middle of the night (LOL) - and best of all, are extremely nutritious.

I won't go back.
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

Hi Monte, why did you switch to this mix is it supposed to be really good, I see Bill mentioned he uses it too.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Well, I have an increasing interest in Rhacodactylus - plus I was increasing my hatred toward crickets - hence - I picked up the T-Rex Crested and Gargoyle diet - and simply love it.

I've also done a little business with Allen Repashy, and have grown to appreciate his work in the area of herp nutrition. I had read about the Leo grecko ICB dust - but never seriously thought of using it. I was quite happy with my custom gutload mixture and Miner-all i.

But then I saw a little jar of it at a Pet-Co I was in (we don't have them where I live - but the Twin Cities does). I thought - hmmm, why not try it. I had a couple of juvi's that were ripe to be my "lab rats" - so I tried it - and LOVED IT. I loved the growth - the vibrancy of the colors - all of it. It's easy to use - it covers all the nutritional/supplemental requirements of the geckos. So now I went out and bought the large "bucket" of it - and use it on all my herps.

I don't supplement except for shaking/baking with ICB. I will admit to keeping a jarlid of Miner-all i in all my breeder boxes, though. That stuff is too good to discontinue. But I don't use it on any of my non-breeder, nor do I use it on my juvi's. So far so good.

For me, it's a way of simplifying my hobby and being able to just enjoy them even more. It's still in the "try it" stage for me - but so far, it seems to be a wonderful product.

I hope this helps.
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Monte Meyer
Powergeckos
Email

No Fru-Fru morphs in the herp room

I will definately check that out. I have been happy with my custom gutload mix too, especially since I discovered the powdered green drink mix and soy protein supplement at Trader Joe's (easy and complete nutritional additives for mealies), but I am always looking for good new ideas.

So what do you feed mealies then? Do you still use a gutload and then this on top of it to dust the mealies with or do you just feed bran or oatmeal to the mealies with a moisture source and let the supplement act as gutload to your leos?
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos

Sarha,
Just to add to what Monte has already...The ICB is actually a complete food. It has macro(protien, carbs, and fat) and micro nutrients(minerals and vits.) in it. Theoretically, if your leo was into eating a mound of dust, it could servive on it...lol. Think of it as dusting your crickets or mealies with the gutload rather than feeding it to them. As such, you can ditch any elaborate gutload mix you currently use and go with the most basic. I think monte has done this and well as myself. If you do decide to try it, If the store is out of the loe dust specifically, you can get any of the other insect dusts(i.e. dragon, vield,...etc.) they are all the same formulation...only different for marketing purposes.
good luck,

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Bill DiFabio
Azteclizard.com
Email Me

I have been buying mealworms in bulk lately (should have 10,000 more and 500 superworms arriving today!). They are clean, don't make noise, don't stink, don't take much space to keep, quiet, don't escape all over your house, and are much less likely to transmit disease to your animals (In fact, I have never personally heard of *ANY* illness transmitted by mealies, not that it caould not happen I don't know, but crickets can carry all kinds of nasty stuff- bacterial infections, parasitic worms, aflotoxin). They can be gutloaded easily using primarily dried/powdered foods (e.g. green drink mix, soy protein supplment, oatmeal, pressed barley, bran, ground flax seed, etc...) with fresh produce switched out frequently (you don't want it too moist or the gutload will mold and you might get mites). I feed mealworms to babies and adults, though I choose the smaller 1/2 grown mealies for the babies/hatchlings. Supers I only feed to adults and older subadults (over 7"

You can also breed mealworms yourself.
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Sarah Stettler aka Starling
Sarah@stargecko.com
StarGecko.Com COMING SOON! Star Quality Leopard Geckos
Specializing in Hypotangerine Tremper Albinos